


Compromised

by Ejostra



Series: Steve & Tony [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Action & Romance, Attempt at Humor, Avengers Family, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hurt Tony Stark, Kind of Alternative Universe, M/M, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Steve Rogers, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Has Nightmares, Tony Stark Still Has Arc Reactor, Villain Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-07-07 11:00:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15906942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ejostra/pseuds/Ejostra
Summary: Tony Stark is a villain but sort of willing to cooparate with Avengers team. Maybe deep inside he is a good guy... Or maybe he just has a crush on one certain Captain with ocean blue eyes. And maybe he just likes to kidnap him so he can enjoy some quality time. A.k.a. Two times when our heroes save each other and one time when they put away their roles to be just Steve and Tony.





	1. Jump into the uknown

The first time a supervillain started to show his interest in Captain America no one really understood what was going on. And mostly not Steve. At first, he thought it was some evil plan to compromise him, to manipulate him or to just make him uncomfortable to the point he won´t be able to function within his own team. But it seemed that wasn´t the case.

Iron man wasn´t a murderer or terrorist. Since the time he appeared on the world scene, he hadn´t taken a single innocent life. But he had killed when he´d felt it was necessary and even though it were all people who deserved it, Steve´s morality didn´t allow him to approve it. SHIELD had a very same attitude. They had tried to negotiate, they even tried to recruit him for all Steve knew, but Iron man had his own plan and his own ways. He wasn´t interested in working in the team – he was pretty clear about that part, nor he was used to play according to the rules. And in some way Steve could understand. There were times when he himself wished to be able to do more.

And it meant that they were enemies but ones who didn´t want to kill each other. Because hey, maybe they chose different methods, but both Iron man and Avengers were fighting against bad guys after all. And each time they met, the both sides knew, that capturing him alive or at least not gravely injured wasn´t an option. If they learned something, it was the fact that he was as much survival material as Steve´s team was.

So like that they started to bump into each other on and off the streets of New York. Usually when Iron man stroke it wasn´t in the states and therefore they were always late. But sometimes they met also in the city, especially when there was a big threat and big fight, where he could come, help and go into hiding again as fast as possible. And despite Fury´s protests Steve found a way how to make him cooperate, how to even work with him side by side, how to make him listen to the orders at least to some point.

At the beginning this strange relationship was like a china doll. The trust was nowhere to be seen and although Iron man had smartmouth and seemed to take everything easy, Steve could sense a certain caution when he approached them. It was like every time they ended a fight he expected to turn around and have cuffs on his hands. And was it according to director Fury´s wish, it would probably happened so, but Steve just couldn´t. His teammates often joked that he grew soft on him. And maybe he did.

Because there was a time when they all used code names and then there was a time when Iron man just didn´t care or was in particularly bad situation and he called him Steve. And he was full of inappropriate jokes and comments which made Steve blush like a teenager and it became harder and harder to ignore mutual fondness. Sometimes when they were all home he imagined how would it be if he came with them just once.  
Instead of post battle sharp silence they would be half snickering on his stupid puns and SHIELD aimed insults. He would be a great reinforcement to the team. Maybe even a great friend to have. But none of that was really possible, was it?

“Cap, do you copy? All of the intruders are out, but we are afraid the bomb is already ticking and we don´t know where,” Hawkeye reported a little out of breath. He was probably running. “Natasha is taking care of Hulk, it´s only Thor and me. SHIELD is trying to scan the place, but it might take some time we don´t have.”

Steve took in his own surroundings. The street was almost empty, but a lot of people were surely hiding inside the buildings. The bomb could be in any of them.  
“We have to at least narrow the area.”  
“Hear you, cap. I´m on it. Everything for my damsels in distress.” The familiar voice made him turn around right in the time to see a red-golden suit approaching the spot, where he stood, from the sky. Steve fought against the corners of his mouth not to go up in natural response to the other man´s presence.

Iron man stayed hovering in the air, but he wasn´t looking at Steve, probably searching for some kind of an energy signature. And Steve used the time he had to let his eyes wander across the suit. The last fight they´d endured together had been an extremely nasty one. But to Steve´s delight there were no scratched to remind him.

“Jarvis is saying it´s this big building with that ugly duck face logo. There are three people on the 16th floor, do you want a ride, captain?”  
Steve ignored Cint´s chuckle in his ear.  
“Yes, of course, if you don´t mind.”  
“Remember to be back before 10 o´clock, cap,” Clint warned him, “or Fury gets a heart attack.”  
“Shut it, Hawkeye,” Steve growled, but it was more from the fear of the bomb exploding faster than they anticipated than from actual irritation and Clint had to know it. “Stay away from the building and take Thor with you.”  
“What about you?”  
Iron man let out a quick sharp laugh. “I will personally fly him home, I promise, sir. We won´t be drinking. God knows I had enough for the day.”

Okay, so that was disturbing thought. At the moment they were like 50 feet from the ground. Steve didn´t even allow himself to look there, although this wasn´t the first time he flew with him. And maybe he was joking or maybe not, but he certainly knew how to prove he belonged in the sky.

“I will drop you on the 16th, the bomb is on the 9th. Jarvis said the bomb won´t go off for the next 16 minutes or so. I will go look at it. And yeah, by the way I hacked your communication system, so we might talk during the process if you want.”  
This time Steve also snickered, because… well, this was becoming a real habit. Iron man helping them out saving lives and then admitting he broke a law right in a next second.  
“Just be quick. Don´t stay there if you feel like it´s a lost fight.”

He turned his head and the metal eyes settled on Steve´s face. “I am no hero, captain. Don´t worry. I don´t plan to die today.” And there was a smile and easiness in his voice, which made Steve feel like it was all not a big deal and everything will end well and that was such a rare feeling in Steve´s life that he had to mentally drag himself back to reality.  
“There is a broken window on your two o´clock.”  
“I see it.”  
He prepared for a jump and roll, his shield steady in his hand.  
“Take care, captain. We´ll stay in touch.”

The one hand encircling his lower back disappeared and Steve landed smoothly in the opening. He briefly turned back to see Iron man changing his direction in the last possible second to avoid colliding with a wall and shook his head.  
“I´m in.”  
“I´m in as well, captain. But this is not a competition, because I dropped you of first.”  
“Why is it that I have to be always silent, but Iron man can talk all the time?” Clint complained. “By the way, SHIELD has just finished clearing the path, so it´s only you two and those three civilians. Captain is right, Iron man, if you can´t deactivate the bomb, let it blow.”  
“Wow, better no one heard that, Legolas, taxpayers would be devasted by your pyrotechnic suggestion.”  
“I found them,” Steve cut in as his eyes fell on three people in far corner of the large office room. They couldn´t yet see him and he didn´t want to yell, so instead he rushed ahead while in his ear Iron man was informing him he located the bomb.  
“Good, find out if you can do something.”  
“On it.”

Steve was slowly opening his mouth to announce his presence, when in fact he suddenly froze in the mid-step, his body overpowering his mind by pure instinct.  
Something didn´t feel right. Those people weren´t moving, weren´t panicking in search for an exit or phone, instead they were unnaturally still. There were two women sitting on the ground, looking helpless and scared, but still they did nothing. The man standing above them slowly turned his head in Steve´s direction maybe only accidently, because Steve wasn´t even breathing at the moment, and suddenly they both knew.

There was a brief second of recognition in man´s eyes and in a next moment a set of bullets were fired in Steve´s way, all of them ending in his shield forcing him to take cover.

The man didn´t stop shooting and Steve tried to lead him away from women. At least they had enough of the sense to start crawl away immediately without him needing to shout it. The man was getting closer on him, but it wasn´t hard to knock him down once he ran out of ammo. It was the old good tactic of “wait and strike”. Something what Steve´s muscles recognized and followed easily.

The man hit the ground, but before that, something had slipped out of his fingers. In that moment Steve was already trying to locate the position of the other women, not able to prevent it in any way. A gas bomb made a small exploding sound and a green fog started to spread out. Steve didn´t have a chance to get away in time. He covered his nose and mouth with his hand, coughing heavily, while with the other one he grabbed the man by the collar and quickly dragged him away.

“Captain, report, Steve!” there was a voice, which he heard now, which had to be there all the time, but suppressed under the fire.  
“I´m okay, Iron man. There was a one intruder. I took care of him. There are two women I need to get to the safety. Your status?”  
“I can´t deactivate this shit,” he sounded angry and irritated, “I will fly for you and let Clint take the blame.”  
“Okay. How much time do we have?”  
There was a short pause. “Not much. I´m on my way. Get to that window.”

Steve looked around. The women were there, looking at him with a restored hope.  
“We must move, the help is on the way.”  
They heard him and the one with dark long hair nodded. He recognized her as the one who´d urged her colleague to start crawling away earlier. Together they hurried to the window. By the time they got there, Iron man was already floating in front of the opening.  
“Take them,” Steve gently pushed the women to the man in the suit. “Go with him, you´ll be safe.”  
“I have a place for three, cap,” the voice replied promptly.  
Steve´s eyes fell down on the unconscious man lying beside his feet.  
“No fucking way.” He looked back on the Iron man´s mask. “No way I´m taking this shit and leaving you here.”  
“I´m not letting him die.”  
“He,” Iron man pointed his finger at the terrorist, “would let you die. He would let die anyone. He would kill anyone. Come on, cap. You can´t think this seriously. We´ll wasting a time here. I can´t come back. This is the only way out.”

There was like a second of eye contact between them, when Steve knew that Iron man understood he was not going to change his mind.  
He still let out a frustrated growl.

“Okay, we have exactly one minute and 37 seconds. You stay right here and I will come back for you. If I won´t be here when it explodes, you jump and I catch you, are we clear?”

And like that all of the words got stuck in Steve´s throat, so he nodded instead. Iron man flew away and Steve stayed alone in the silence. His head was throbbing and spinning, surely from the gas or whatever that was. He sat down on the cold floor feeling like he might pass out. The voices in the com kept talking to him. It was Clint and Thor and after that also Natasha and he was fighting darkness with everything he had.

It seemed like it was forever since Iron man had taken off and somehow he knew he won´t make it in time.  
“Iron man, don´t come back. I repeat, don´t come back.”  
Suddenly there was quiet on the channel, until a sharp voice cut in.  
“Stop it, captain. I´m coming for you no matter what you say. You may at least try to jump, so I won´t have to go and search for you in the falling concrete.”

Steve was stubborn, but maybe not so stubborn as Iron man was. And so he found himself climbing through the shattered glass right to the edge. Slowly he stood up.  
“He will make it, Steve.”  
“Just jump. I can see him. He´s coming for you.”  
“Aye, my friend. Do not worry.”  
Steve´s eyes closed down, maybe just for a second and he stumbled. An explosion was heard behind him and he expected to be hit. Soon he really was, but it didn´t hurt as bad as he thought.

Something solid bumped into his chest and maybe, just maybe he heard someone cursing.

***

Director Fury sat in his office, looking at the wall in front of him. He took a few deep breaths.  
“He did what again, Barton?”  
A pause on the other side lasted only a second.  
“He kidnapped him.”  
“He kidnapped Captain America,” Fury tasted the words on his tongue like it was a two days old lunch.  
There was a brief tired exhale on the other side. “Exactly, sir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oookay, so the first chapter working as a prologue is already here cause I´m impatient as hell. :D Please leave me a comment if you want me to continue, because this is a creation of two sleepless nights and maybe I should really sleep instead of posting it here. PS: I reply to comments. :)
> 
> Also if you feel like checking out my brave new youtube channel who cries for some attention, please go and see my two Marvel thematic videos:  
> 1\. [I´m here (Loki and Thor) ](https://youtu.be/S9Ma_uYN6Ak)  
> 2\. [Just a man, but made of iron (Tony Stark)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp_xrogWvi8)
> 
> Don´t forget to like, dislike, subscribe, comment. Make my soul shudder with happiness. Please, subscribe here as well, so you get updates. :)


	2. Blindfolded and kissing an enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is officialy kidnapped. What is Iron man´s evil plan? Lets find out!

Steve woke up with a painful groan involuntary escaping his dry lips, dizzy and disoriented in complete darkness with his head throbbing and with a sharp pain in one of his shoulders he felt like on the verge of very bad panic attack. All he could think about was ice and cold and ice and hydra and… yes, definitely feeling someone´s hand touching his right leg.

His body went into full fight mode in a single second, moving forward to the possible threat even if he couldn´t see what or who it was. He noticed the restraints on his hands only when they returned the force he put into them and threw him back into the chair. And the person and touch disappeared completely sometime between those two actions.

The breath got stuck within Steve´s lungs, but he still tried to shake the panic off as fast as he could.  
“Iron man, is that you?” he asked with a small hope in his hoarse voice.  
“It´s me, capsicle, who do you think would design cuffs strong enough to hold you down if you ever decide to beat the hell out of me while I´m trying to tend to your injuries?” And there was this light funny pitch in the familiar voice which made Steve release the air he was holding and slump down in the chair.  
“How…” he started, but lost his next words immediately. What did he wanted to ask really? How the fight ended? How did he save him? Why he didn´t wake up in the compound?  
“Your team is alright, cap. I guess you will be too in next few hours. Terrorist behind the bars and all… We didn´t lose anyone.”  
Steve´s brows went up when the word “we” was uttered, but it probably remained unnoticed. He liked that word a lot, more so when it came from the guy.  
“So if you may not fight me anymore, I would like to continue where I stopped?”

Steve heard rustling of the clothes and then the gentle but firm touch returned to the spot on his thigh. Maybe it was because the place was too close to the certain part of his body or simply because of those hands, but suddenly Steve felt urge to talk and put his attention elsewhere, before he could embarrass himself.  
“If you don´t mind me asking, why am I in the cuffs and blindfolded?” he ended up saying, pulling inside the cuffs a little to make a point.

The touching came to a sudden halt and Steve found himself protesting in his head.  
“I…” Iron man started and there was a very unfamiliar puzzled tone in his words. Then Steve finally noticed.

This wasn´t Iron man´s voice, at least not the machine-like one. This was the voice of a normal person, of a man. A nice, deep and steady voice, making everything he said sound like a music.

Steve stayed quiet because he desperately wanted to hear more.  
“I am sorry for that,” Iron man decided to continue and Steve found himself lost in the light rhythm, “I know that it is probably uncomfortable and maybe a little scary when you´d woken up, but it was the only way how to put the suit away.” The hands slowly returned to its previous job on Steve´s leg and he stiffed.  
He was now hyper-aware that those were actual fingers and not gloves. For a moment Steve imagined how it would feel if he could reach out and find Iron man´s face, hair and shoulders instead of the cold metal. Because all of those had to be right in front of him.  
“Why did you put away your suit?”  
Steve could pickpoint the exact moment when Iron man´s face turned up to meet his eyes even under the cloth.  
“Well, now I know you don´t remember our landing, because otherwise you wouldn´t have to ask.” Steve would swear he was smiling when he was saying that, but the reminder just made him feel all sick again.  
“Are you okay?”

His hands stopped working for a moment and Steve had a feeling that the man was surprised by his question.  
“Yes. I´m fine, cap.”  
“Actually, sir,” the artificial voice somewhere in the room interrupted Iron man, leaving Steve turning his head in a lost fight to find its source, “I have to remind you that you probably have a concussion, a sprained ankle and bruised at least two…”  
“Mute, Jarvis, what the hell?”  
“Jarvis…” Steve tried to remember, “is it the one Jarvis you are talking to during the missions? Is it your…”  
“My AI,” Iron man finished Steve´s sentence, “artificial intelligence, he runs everything what has a connection, sometimes makes totally inappropriate comments and has no self-preservation…”  
“You mean like you?”  
And after that one question Iron man laughed quickly and cheerfully. “Yes, cap, like me.”

Steve leaned his head to the side, clearly indicating who he was about to speak to.  
“Jarvis, is there anyone who can take care of Iron man here? Any paramedic? Doctor?”  
“Jarvis, answer,” Tony gave his permission still with a smile in his voice.  
“Unfortunately, no, Mr. Rogers. But sir is fully capable to do it himself as he always does.”  
“In a few minutes…” Iron man added, gently patting the spot he´d just bandaged, “you´ll be as good as new, captain.”

Steve felt a hint of guilt spreading inside of his chest. Those listed injuries were his fault. He may be okay tomorrow, but ordinary human body would take weeks to heal, like for example Iron man´s body. Sometimes all of them forgot that there was a man inside that armor.

“And yes, about the restraints… I´m not sure if you know about it,” Iron man stood up and Steve could feel that he let the arms of the chair supported his weight, hopefully because of that it was more comfortable not really needed, “but I officially kidnapped you.”  
“You did?” Steve couldn´t fight an amusement in his voice. “And what do you plan to do with me then?”  
“Oh, glad you asked. Jarvis, how is it going with our plans?”  
“Everything will be ready in 20 minutes, sir. But I´m afraid that chicken in the oven needs your attention immediately.”  
Steve´s smile spread so wide it almost hurt.  
“Are we going to have a dinner? That´s your evil plan?”  
“And it´s out… eh, never mind. Yes, that was the plan, if you´re up to it?” Without the usual confidence in Iron man´s words, Steve felt the urge to reply in nanoseconds.  
“I´m a prisoner, right? If Fury ask, well, what could I do?”

There was a brief pause, when no one said anything. After that Iron man had to move further away.  
“Excellent. Jarvis will get rid of those cuffs as soon as I´m out of the room. You have here shower and clothes if you would like to change. By the way, I haven´t thought about any possible way how we could eat with you restrained, so I hope you won´t feel like arresting an innocent person here, most of all when this person is serving a dinner.”

Steve tried to keep check of Iron man´s position in the room. He had the feeling that he was walking towards the door.  
“Can I at least know your name?” And yeah, that was probably stupid to ask for. “Or any name I could call you?”  
Again there was a brief moment of silence, not long enough to get uncomfortable.  
“You can call me Tony.”  
Steve nodded tasting the name on his tongue. “But that´s not your real name, right?  
Iron man… Tony didn´t reply to that, but he didn´t have to.  
“It´s okay. I understand. Tony is good enough. Thank you. For that. And for saving my life.”  
“You´re welcome, captain. J, open the door and loosen the cuffs.”  
“Yes, sir,” was AI´s answer to the order and in a next second Steve was free to move. Still he stayed in the same position for a moment, just to be sure that Tony really left the room. He didn´t want to spoil it – it, whatever was going on between them. After that he put away the cloth from his eyes, blinking and adjusting around the room.

There was a big bed right in front of him and a small table with a lamp, a pile of clothes on the armchair and two doors, no windows. One was locked, what Steve quite expected, the other one led him to the nice bathroom, where he took a long enough shower to forget on the burning and exploding buildings at least for now.  
He found the choice of clothes rather funny. The jeans were all right, almost his size, but T-shirt with kittens? Totally his choice number one for a date. Or no… not a date, just a dinner. Because of the hunger, not attraction.

Steve didn´t know how much time really passed, he wasn´t wearing his watch and the water in the shower was nice enough to lose a track. But it wasn´t even a minute since he sat on the bed until when´s Jarvis announced the dinner was ready and the second door unlocked automatically. Steve first peered in finding a small corridor and an amazing smell hovering in the air like signs next to the road leading him straight to the dining room.

“Hope you like the chicken, it´s the only thing I can cook.” The voice from the kitchen was again one which Steve connected with the suit and that was a shame. He was sure Tony would appear once more fully covered in metal, so instead his eyes set on the small table for two in the middle of the room. It was kept simple, yet the look on the plate and food and a careful way of styling gave away that person preparing it all cared a lot.  
“Do you like wine, captain?”  
And the voice was much closer than before. Steve´s eyes went up and widened from the sight.

Tony was standing only few metres away with a bottle and two glasses in his hands and even if he was wearing one of his gloves or at least part of it and the helmet with a mask, those parts of the suits were the only one visible. Otherwise the man was dressed in the dark jeans, snickers and an extreme tight black t-shirt. Steve restrained himself from gasping out loud. If he ever fought himself about how he felt about him, it came all clear to Steve now.

“What?” he asked confused, not able to look away. He could swear Tony was aware of the reason and was snickering inside that helmet of his. “Oh, wine… yes. I do like wine.” He started to move towards the table and Steve´s body followed as well.  
“Perfect. Please, have a seat.”

Steve threw himself on the chair watching Tony´s hands placing the glasses on the table and pouring the red liquid in both of them. Involuntary he recalled where those hands were just few minutes ago and prayed to god, he won´t start blushing. He expected them to be hard as he knew Iron man was designing and building the suits on his own, but what surprised him was how many scares and burns lingered upon the skin. Then he caught a glimpse of the red and gold metal and the smile disappeared from his face.

“You know you don´t need that around me. You saved me, I´m not going to hurt you.” I wouldn´t hurt you even without the saving part.  
Tony´s face under the mask made a small move to the side like he had no idea what was Steve talking about, so Steve indicated with a nod.  
“Oh, that…” Tony looked at his hand and then back on Steve. The armor was beginning from behind his elbow and ending under his knuckles, it would give him a right amount of strength for a punch or defense strike.  
“It´s not like that, cap. You got it all wrong. This,” he lifted the hand in the air, “is because of my wrist, it is stabilizing it and helping me with heavy liftings. Right now even with easy liftings, like, eh… a pan with a meat? In the state the wrist is in, I wouldn´t even lift it from the cooker.”

So yes, basically Steve just made an idiot out of himself and that was about trying not to blush…  
“I see. Sorry. I just thought… Never mind. It smells delicious.” He grabbed the fork. “How did you hurt it by the way? Was it today?” Please, let it not be today. Steve felt horrible enough for the list of injuries he knew about.  
“No, it was a week ago. You remember Hulk falling into the river and me trying to pull him back to the shore?”  
Yeah. Steve remembered. That wasn´t a nice one.  
“So let´s say he didn´t mean to, but he was scared and all… Don´t tell Bruce, okay?”  
And what could Steve do? He just smiled and agreed quietly, making a mental note to check up more forcefully on Iron man next time while the man was always claiming to be okay, but clearly that wasn´t the case.

Steve made himself look into his own plate and took a tasting bite. Okay, so the meat wasn´t quite ready yet, but Steve hungry as he was, couldn´t care less.  
“It´s good,” he started to nod approvingly and lifted his eyes again towards the man on the other side of the table. After that he sighed.  
“You didn´t think it through, right?”

Tony was sitting without moving with a plate in front of him and the mask covering his face looking hilarious and adorable at the same time.  
“You can´t eat like that,” Steve hummed irritated.  
“I figured out like three seconds ago, cap.” He detected a humor in the response despite the machine-sound modification successfully hiding a lot of emotions from the words.

There was still an option to put the helmet away, but Steve wasn´t going to suggest that right away. Instead he got up from his seat and walked back to the room. He returned back with a cloth in his hands.  
“I will take this and you will get that off.”  
Tony was quick into taking a hint of what Steve wanted to do. Steve hushed all of his protests afterwards.

“Let me at least tie it for you.”  
He let him because he wanted those hands near him again, he wanted to fell the guy´s cologne and see him moving and walking with broad shoulders up and down with each breath.  
He sat back, starring ahead of himself, while Tony standing behind him slowly put away his helmet next to Steve´s plate.  
“This is like the blindest date ever,” he laughed and in next moment the cloth brushed Steve eyelashes. He closed his eyes.  
A date…

Iron man let his hands slide down Steve´s neck and that made him slightly shiver.  
“So now it´s going to get funny, hope you remember where your plate is.”  
Steve tried to visualize. Yes. He will be fine. Maybe.

Tony got in his seat again and according to the sound he started to eat as well. And they both talked. Tony didn´t mind having a full mouth to describe some of his tech work he was currently on, chewing in the process and using so much foreign words that Steve didn´t even try to pretend he could keep up with him. Still it was very charming to just listen to him speaking, sometimes so fast and sophisticated that even Captain America felt like a five years old child sitting next to a university professor.  
But Steve also mentioned a lot of the stuff he did himself beside saving the world like drawing for example. That received some comments he pretended not to hear, what only made Iron man try and mock him harder. He was also talking about the life he had back before the war and how everything is different now from what he knew. Tony seemed to understand. After a while he found himself really relaxed and he had to pay a lot of more attention not to mention any topics considering work.

When they finished they meals and were only sipping the wine they still had so much to talk about. Steve told Tony about the books he´d like before he woke up in this century and Tony on the other side tried to engage him into new movies. They shared their music preferences and favorite places to eat in New York. And after that they ended up talking about Natasha, Clint and Bruce, about the missions they both knew about because they´d both been there. By that time Steve knew the atmosphere will be ruined in next minutes, because they just stated to remind themselves where they were. They reminded themselves why was Steve stabbing himself with a fork frequently through the dinner. That reason wasn’t to make Tony laugh, but to hide his face before Steve´s eyes. Those were all stolen moments, amazing ones, but still stolen.

Steve gave out a sigh.  
“What do you really want, Tony?” he didn´t want to say that aloud, but it was already out and he was really curious about the answer. “I mean, don´t take me wrong, I like this,” he indicated the place around himself, “but nothing changed on our situation. You are still… we are…”  
“Enemies,” Tony finished for him and god… that somehow hurt.  
“Yes. And we can´t keep doing this unless you are going to continue kidnapping me.”  
The smooth laughter wrapped Steve in the warm cotton.  
“I can kidnap you anytime you would like, Steve.”  
“The best proposition I ever got.”  
“I bet so.”

Tony cleared his throat and he spoke up more serious this time. “I know that I´m holding us in this situation. But I´m not ready to give up my solo life yet. I still have few things to finish first, blow up something and stuff. But it´s not going to be forever like this.”  
And that Steve didn´t understand, but he let the man continue.  
“But you don´t have to do this, cap, if you feel like you´re wasting time with me. Damn…” he sounded pretty desperate to find the right words, “I don´t even know if you… I mean, I like you, you know?”  
Something in Steve´s chest just stopped working.  
“But I don´t know if you could be interested in this… I mean with me… It´s not like I can read about your preferences on the internet.”  
The funny thing was Steve didn´t even know his own preferences or at least he thought he knew until now.  
“So I´m not going to urge you into anything. I had this feeling that you might… But yeah, I misunderstand people a lot. I still like your company, so you can just tell me to fuck of and we can start right at the beginning only as friends or…”

Steve didn´t really control his hand when it reached to the place he hoped it could meet Tony´s. Maybe his heart did.

“No, I think I like it the way it is now. Just, take it slow on me, would you?”  
Tony had to grin, Steve started to see it behind the changes of his voice. “Yes. Sure. You too. Like don´t start shooting next time you see me and so on. That would be good for a start.”  
“That can be arranged.”

The sudden sharp movement of Tony´s hand under his made Steve pull back. An unfamiliar ringtone started to play with funny lyrics.  
“Sorry. My cell phone. It´s Fury,” he explained and perhaps reached somewhere for the said device.  
“Fury has your number?” Steve asked, but didn´t receive a reply as Tony picked up the phone in the same time.  
“Hey, sugarcube, what is going on? I´m at the meeting right now. What? Steve Rogers? Like who? No, sorry, don´t know what you´re talking about.”  
There were a few seconds of shouting on the other side of the phone and Steve could hear no more than the last question. Fury was asking if he was alright.  
“How can I know, director?” Tony answered calmly. “But can you imagine Captain America be in any other state than alright? I guess he just hates your debriefings, so he probably went to grab a snack and will be back soon enough. Don´t let this vein on your forehead pop out too much.  
And maybe there were some dead threats uttered between that reply until Tony cancelled the call, but neither Steve nor Tony commented on it.

As soon as he had Tony´s attention back on him, he tried to make a serious expression suppressing the smile off his lips.

“Fury knows,” he stated simply and Tony made an agreeing noise.  
“And you would like to know why he doesn´t send some ninjas to kick my ass in the shower when I put the suit in the closest.”  
Okay, now Steve´s mind was clenching to the word shower and nothing more.  
“Yes. Or why no one else knows.” Like me for example.

Tony took a deep breath in. “Fury thinks he knows,” he corrected Steve´s suggestion, “but he has no proof and without it he can´t do anything legally. And it seems I´m not such a big thorn in his ass to kill me in my sleep.”  
Steve shook away the image settling in his head of Natasha strangling someone in the dark room only to find out she killed the man who saved her and Steve´s life on several occasions. Immediately after the scary concept was born, Steve also found out an answer why something like that wouldn´t happen.  
“He wants us to catch you, but he never told us to kill you. He still wants you to join, right?”  
“Seem so. I think he thinks that if he had a proof of my identity, he could blackmail me into joining.”

Steve didn´t like this way of dealing with potential recruits, but it wasn´t entirely a bad idea and it looked exactly like something Fury would do.  
“He will ask me questions. What should I say?”  
Tony took a sip from his wine before answering.  
“Anything you want. I don´t care really. You can tell him I left you in the dark room and played you Justin Bieber for five hours straight.”  
One of the corners of Steve´s lips went up. “What a torture.”  
“And what about us?” Steve continued, his guts clenching at the thought of Fury´s possible questions. “I mean…”  
“Yeah, I know. It´s okey to tell him anything you are alright with. He probably knows I have a crush on you. You can tell him I was trying something, but you had no interest or whatever you like, captain.”  
And this may be a bad idea and dangerous ground, but Steve couldn´t help himself.  
“So I should lie.”

After that he could hear Tony sucking in the breath like he had trouble to import air into his lungs for a moment.  
“Yes, you may lie, that would be for the best.”

Steve wanted to see him so badly. Not only his body without the armor. But also his face, his eyes, his lips especially when he could hear him snickering. And for a second he thought about asking him, but then he stopped himself. If he knew and wouldn´t tell Fury that would be a direct break of order. Still…  
“What are you thinking about, captain?”  
Steve straightened on his chair. He decided to tell the truth.  
“I would like to touch your face. But I know that it´s stupid. It´s not like I could be able to make a portrait after that. I draw but I ´m not that good, but it´s a stupid idea. It´s just that I hate I can´t see you…”  
“It´s not a stupid idea, Steve.” The voice was somewhere next to Steve´s right side and he realized that Tony had to stand up while he was talking. “You can do that if you want. I´m standing right here.”

Steve felt the brush of fabric on the side of his shoulder and goosebumps found a way on his back.  
He stood up, slowly putting the chair away.

First he reached to the direction of Tony´s hands, but he grabbed only air. He let his own hands outstretched and as he assumed Tony caughed them instead, guiding him up. He placed one of them on the side of his neck and the second on his cheek.  
Steve let the one on the neck stay where it was and with other one he aimed first down, his imagination running 200%. He mapped the strong jaw and nice full lips with the gentle brush of his fingers, continuing up back to the cheek, to the temple, missing the eyes which Steve had the feeling were closed from the beginning. Then he went for hair, brushing through the curls once and then he did the route again, this time stopping shortly to feel the air escaping through parted lips on his skin. The man was breathtakingly beautiful.  
“I´m sorry for this.”  
Steve wanted to ask what for, but didn´t have a chance as Tony reached for him and pulled him into a kiss. Steve gasped against the other man´s lips, not just from a surprise but also from the closeness and sudden overwhelming feelings creeping up from his stomach. He had the man in his arms, pressed on his body from head to toe, sending the chills down his spine and Steve never felt the urge not to let go so strong before.  
Coming from Tony, the kiss was not a demanding act which would force a response from Steve if he was not ready to give one, but it still had enough of the power to mess with Steve´s otherwise pretty steady heartbeat.

When they finally parted, foreheads still pressed together while catching their breaths, Steve simply realized he was doomed.  
He wanted more. So much more.

“I need to return you,” Tony groaned still so close that Steve could feel it on his skin. “Fury threatened me, we have like 15 minutes until the commando burst through the doors.”  
From many inappropriate responses and ideas Steve picked the least craziest.  
“I want to meet again. Can we?”  
“Of course,” Tony laughed, stroking a thumb over Steve´s neck. “Even if I have to kidnap you again.”  
Steve shook his head, a smile back on his face.  
“I would prefer a meeting without Fury knowing.”

Tony´s tone changed into disapproving one. “You want to sneak out behind mother´s back? I would never think that about you, captain.”  
And like that Steve forced himself to let Tony go, to let him grab a functional suit and fly him back home, to the base. Because there was no other way. Because Steve´s life won´t be ever easy. Because Steve will always be Captain America first and then Steve Rogers - blindfolded kissing his enemy.  
They didn´t agreed on the terms of next meeting, but Steve didn´t doubt there will be one and soon.

He stood on the roof of the compound and watched Iron man fly away in the distance feeling like he was not supposed to have this kind of a smile on his face when he was just returned from capture. But he didn´t try to hide it anyway.  
After a while he noticed a presence behind his back.

Clint came to stand next to him watching now clear skies.  
“It´ 10:24, cap,” he said, turning on Steve with a spark in his knowing eyes. Clint knew everything. He always did.  
“You are so grounded.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So another chapter is behind us. Who is excited for a second meeting? :P Please let me know in the comments how you feel about this one. I live from the cuddos and your comments, don´t let me starve. :P 
> 
> Thank you very much for your love! :) Your Ejostra


	3. One night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes keep on meeting and getting to know each other, but it´s only a matter of time until their pink bubble burst.

Their first meeting after the kidnapping incident was once more not under the pleasant circumstances, but this time Steve felt prepared for that option or at least he thought so.

The truth was no one could prepare him well enough for a distraction and fear binding him into a nervous ball of worry whenever someone aimed a weapon towards the man in the iron suit and fired. Each and every time his breath got caught into his throat, feet froze to the ground and all his attention was suddenly on him and him only. Like nothing else existed for Steve in that moment, all his surroundings blurred, his eyes desperately searching for a familiar red and gold colors in the sky.

And that was not fair. Because he had a whole team of people relying on his leadership. He tried to remind himself that Iron man survived without him for years and that he knew what he was doing, at least the half of the time. But the other half of their missions it was Tony flying into every possible danger Steve could think about. And that was not really helping with Steve´s multitasking.

He tried to understand why the fear was so much more intense now, when the affection was all the same or… yes, maybe it was stronger recently, but Steve had cared at the beginning too, he´d cared a lot. And the only possible answer coming to his mind was something that could always make him blush.

It was quite simple. After he´d heard the man speak to him and felt his lips on his, everything had to become too real for him.

The suit wasn´t impenetrable. It could break and break bones under it. It could bend and burn the skin or puncture a lung. And those pictures were something what Steve couldn´t ignore any more. But he tried, he tried because his team needed him and he tried because Tony asked him to concentrate, to trust him.

And everything ended well. They won and no one said anything about Steve being distracted the whole battle. Still the question lingered back in his mind – will he always feel this way from now on?

The answer was probably yes, but it was only up to him how he will deal with the problem. At least Tony developed a nice habit of communicating with him and not lying about his condition.

Fortunately, there were no more fights after this one, but it also meant no more accidental meeting with Iron man. After few days of Steve walking around the compound like a ghost, something finally happened. A package came with his name on the top. No returning address. And inside a brand new cell phone.

The device looked alien to him and it took him few hours of frustration to learn how to work with it. There was only one number saved. Steve didn´t have to be a genius to know who sent him the gift and he waited impatiently until the phone went off for the first time.  
“Yes?” Steve was in his room, marching nervously, hoping, eager to hear the familiar voice again.  
“Hello, capsicle, how do you like my new tech? Waterproof, bulletproof, alienproof, everything a typical superhero needs on the daily basis.”  
Steve let Tony babble with a fond smile forming on his face, all tension leaving his body at instant.

“You know that people are starting to get suspicious because I take the phone everywhere with me, right?” he told him one day after two weeks of nonstop calls. “Today when I left the dining room, I would swear Natasha was giving me a disapproving look.”  
“Oh,” Tony sounded seriously surprised, “and here I thought she liked me.”  
“She likes you,” Steve corrected his statement, “she just thinks we are going to get burned on this.”

“I see,” Tony added after a moment of silence, “Steve, can I have a question?”  
“Sure.”  
“Do you want me to call you? Because you know… I´ve never asked you. I´ve just given you a phone and expected this will be enough for a while, but I know it´s not.”

Steve just shook his head. “I want you to call me, Tony. I love our conversations.” Even despite the fact they had to be careful what information they give away. “It´s the only thing I´m looking forward every day.”  
And that was the most honest thing he´d ever admitted aloud about how he was feeling when there was no problem to set his mind upon. He was lonely in this new world. Even with his team around.

There was a slight pause on the other side before Steve´s heart missed a beat.  
“You sound like you need a company, do you want me to come?”

Steve thought he had to hear it wrong. “Do you want to meet?”  
“Yes. I mean. Do you?”  
“Sure,” he didn´t even try to hide the immediate excitement in his voice.

So they met. They took a walk in the park during the night, Tony with hoodie big and awkward enough to hide his face with a help of the spreading darkness around them. They talked and they laughed and Steve might told him about his slowly adjusting to… well everything. Tony listened patiently and remembered every word. Steve knew, because when a month later he decided to buy a place of his own, the gift was there, waiting on his new bed in his new flat. And it was a drawing set. The only hobby which gave him peace in the past and was doing it also in presence. Tony knew, because he listened.

The idea of owning his own place turned to be the blessing. There was no obstacle for Tony to meet him there. Everytime after the dark, with no light in the room, they would sit at the table or on the sofa, sometimes even on the small balcony enjoying the fresh air and each others company. It was hard to imagine Steve´s evenings without the man anymore. His presence was addictive and Steve missed it when their days were busy.  
It was funny when one day Steve realized how many things he kept in his place just for the sake of their late night´s visits. Things he knew Tony liked. Like whiskey for example – something what Steve wouldn´t drink himself not even under the torture. But on the other hand the glass of that gold liquid suited Tony. It was nice to watch it moving in the glass along with his hand when he was trying to explain something. It suited his voice which now Steve knew better than his own. All the special tones he used when speaking about people who were dear to him, people without names. All the shades of excitement and curiosity when he was talking about his techs, than anger and hatred towards people he were fighting. All the small chuckles and smiles.  
He could easily say when the man was tired or not in the mood, when he was joking and having fun, when he was careless and few innocent things escaped his otherwise locked storage of information. He could even say when he thought Steve was sad and his voice got all soft on the edges, comforting. But what was the most important after weeks and weeks together Steve could say one thing for himself too. He was slowly falling in love with the man and even if he wanted to stop it now, he feared it was already too late.

“I brought us china today, I haven´t eaten since like… I think since our last date,” Tony hummed cheerfully dropping the bag in Steve´s lap and throwing himself in the chair next to him. Steve´s smile widened. He´d left the door unlocked before he went to sit on the balcony. He was leaving them unlocked for some time now.  
“Dummy wanted to poison me, you know? Again. If I once don´t turn in you will know who is responsible…”

Steve laughed, but stayed hesitantly quiet afterwards. There was something on his mind, but he didn´t know how to say it. He hated the fact he needed to talk about it at all.  
“What´s wrong?” Tony stopped eating and was probably watching Steve in the dark. Bright as he was, he had to know immediately that something was wrong.

Steve told him about Fury finding out about them. He knew they were meeting somehow.  
“Probably because you haven´t kidnapped me for some time,” he joked. And he´d asked Natasha to watch him, because director had to know that Steve would detect anyone else. But Natasha was the best of the best. She was also Steve´s friend and because of that she warned him.  
“So you´re saying I´ve just walked into the trap? Hell, I forgot the suit…”  
“That´s not funny, Tony,” Steve reminded him, “Natasha is loyal to me, but she is also a SHIELD´s agent. I can´t ask her to lie for me forever.” But what was the other option? Stop meeting? No, that wasn´t an option, or was it?  
He heard that Tony put away his food. “Did she give you an ultimatum?”

Steve nodded. “We need to find another way.” Steve gazed into the starry night and jumped a bit when he felt a gentle touch on his hand.  
“I´m sorry I put you in this situation. Do you want me to stop visiting?”  
“No!”  
That was maybe too quick and too loud and Tony laughed.  
“Do we have at least this evening?”  
“Yes.”  
Tony seemed to think about something. “I can keep calling you, until I´ll find another way how to meet you.” They both knew it won´t be enough. The distance will be like a stab to the chest.

Steve bent closer in the way where he expected to find Tony´s face, he let his hand stroke the other man´s cheek and smiled when Tony leaned in the touch.  
“I think we don´t have much choice.” He pressed their lips together, gasping when Tony decided to deepen the kiss, gently forcing Steve´s mouth to let him in.

“Stay for the night.” Steve realized it was his voice and him pleading to Tony´s ear, whispering the words he couldn´t imagine to tell anyone else.  
“Okay,” Tony answered breathlessly and suddenly they were both up their feet, drawing each other inside. Steve lost the majority of his clothes on the way to the bed, letting Tony throwing them away like they offended him in some way. By this time they were pretty much used to move around very low light or none at all, so there was no need to split even for a second.

Steve stopped in front of the bed, when he heard the back of Tony´s leg bump into the wood. Just in the right spot for the man to lose his balance and fall on his back, kicking of his shoes in the process, laughing. Steve crawled on top of him, pressing his mouth to the curve of the man´s neck, sucking on the skin, happy with the soft moaning he received as a reaction. He returned to the open lips, not really sure who was leading now. Tony´s legs were entailed with his own and his hands were holding him close. Steve let his own fingers wander over the body beneath him. The man was still awfully overdressed.

Steve pressed a small kiss somewhere on Tony´s face receiving a playful bite in return while he searched for the hem of Tony´s t-shirt. When he pulled the body under him stiffened and pair of hands grabbed him.  
“No.”  
Steve didn´t even dare to breath. “What´s wrong? Tony?”  
“Please, don´t.” He sounded broken and scarred and it took some time till Steve found a possible reason and fought away the horrible feeling in his stomach.  
“I don´t care about the scars, you know that.” To emphasize what he´s just said he took Tony´s hands in his. The hands of the mechanic, full of hard and burned, scarred skin. The hands he loved.  
“It´s not just that…” the man tried to explain, but the words were clearly failing him. “It´s worse… I don´t want you to see it.”  
Steve started to nod, although he doubted he could see anything in the pitch black around them, leaning back to his previous position to place another kiss on the man´s face. He gently fixed the t-shirt. “Sure. Whatever you want.”  
And there were indeed a lot of things Tony wanted and allowed Steve to do to him and vice versa. Despite they had only one night, they took their time, exploring, learning about each other preferences, learning about what was the right impulse for their bodies to react in the certain way.

And Tony was a fast student, delivering Steve pleasure he couldn´t even dream of. If Fury had enough time to place the bugs in his flat, he received a hell of a show – as Tony mentioned while laughing and touching Steve in the way it made it impossible to stay quiet.

The morning however came too soon. Steve didn´t want to fall asleep because he knew that Tony will leave him before the sun would reach them. Still it was impossible to resist the sleeping when he had him in his embrace, pressed together from head to toe.

Still, he was disappointed when he woke up alone, but the piece of paper on the nightstand made him smile.  
“The last night was perfect. I will make it work, don´t worry. Keep the phone with you.” Steve´s grin grew bigger when he noticed a one more line at the end. “PS: You´re snoring, Steve. Do something with that while I´m gone. Tony.”  
The bed was still warm. Steve could smell the man everywhere. On the sheets. On the pillows. On himself. He decided he didn´t need to get up for few more hours, enjoying fresh memories buried in his head and around him.

When he returned the same evening into the compound to train and leave out some steam he found his team waiting on him, Bruce and Clint silently passing some money between them.  
“What is it about?” he asked curious.  
“Just a small bet,” Clint replied and Steve blushed under his stare. The archer clearly knew what happened between him and Tony. And his first thought was turning at Natasha.  
“Don´t look at me. I wasn´t following you. We have a deal, don´t we?” There was a doubt and a question in her eyes.

Steve didn´t want to be angry or hurt, but he couldn´t help some of those emotions to slip into his tone.  
“We won´t meet again. I haven´t seen his face. I don´t have anything to recognize him with. He took a good care of that.”  
And suddenly the cheerful atmosphere was gone. Steve didn´t want to see the pity on the faces of his teammates. The truth was that in theory he could sculpt the man´s face based only on all of the touches and mouth exploring. But they had to be all aware of the fact that Steve was never going to admit it.  
“I´m sorry, Steve.”  
He nodded. And went to his room. It was better than to stay alone in his flat.

When he finally decided to lay at the bed, he let the phone rest on the pillow next to his head. Brushing the cover with the tips of his fingers, he closed his eyes.  
“Please let it not be long.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can´t even say how bad I´m feeling about this chapter. I might still rewrite it later, because I´m so not satisfied with it. What do you think? Was it at least a bit "readable"? :)
> 
> Btw. Steve here is a bit experienced as you can tell. Hopefully you don´t mind. :)


	4. Look at me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Iron-man´s identity be revealed when he is injured and in need of Steve´s help?

                                                         

 

Steve was spending his free days avoiding other people. Sometimes unconsciously. Sometimes not. It wasn´t like he wanted to be alone, but he couldn´t pretend he was alright all the time. It was exhausting. He was still able to perform his duties, but when he put away the uniform he found it hard not to miss the man. Not to think about him. Not to be distracted and above all, not to mind other’s careful eyes checking on him. Natasha even tried to talk to him, apologizing again. Steve understood. He wasn´t angry with anyone, maybe only on himself for being so apathic. It was nothing new he preferred his nights spending alone in his flat, where he could at least hope for Tony to return. These days it was normal for him to take his phone everywhere, praying it would go off today or tomorrow. Preferably today.

When it finally happened, Steve almost passed the opportunity only staring on the ringing device in disbelief. His hand trembled when he picked up.

“Tony?”  
For a long moment there was no answer, only harsh breathing on the other side and small incoherent sounds of pain and discomfort.  
“Tony?” Steve tried again, a worry evident in his voice.  
“Steve…”  
He would recognize the voice everywhere, even when it was weak and trembling.

“Tony, what´s wrong? Where are you?”

Steve started pacing around the room, listening for any signs that Tony was in trouble and needed to have him on his feet immediately.

“Steve…” Tony groaned into the phone again and the supersoldier went still. “Please… Help me.”  
“Where are you? Baby, please talk to me.”  
“I… don´t know…”

Steve fought away the panic trying to overpower him. He grabbed his other phone and dialed Natasha, not sure where he got enough of clear judgement to do so.

“Steve?”  
“Nat, please, you have to find Tony.” He cursed. “You have to find Iron man. Something´s wrong with him. He´s calling me right now. Track the signal.”  
Professional as she was, Natasha just replied calmly: “on it” and Steve squeezed the other phone.  
“Tony, please, tell me what´s wrong.”  
The voice was choking on the words when answering. “It was… a trap. I´m sorry. I don´t… There was a gas. I… I breathed… in. ´m… sleepy, Steve. You… find me?”  
“Yes,” he breathed out firmly, “I will find you. Just calm down and tell me what you can see.”

There was a brief pause on the other side during which Steve called out Tony´s name few times in panic.  
“´m here… I think… See your flat… tried… walk… hmm… I can´t… ”  
Steve marched towards the window with a view on the street in front of the building. There, in the shadow of the street lamp, he saw a figure leaning over the side of the nearby bench. Could be him. Or not.  
“Tony, are you sitting down?”  
“Mor´… less,” he murmured back, some of his usual self seeping into the tired voice. In any other circumstances it would make Steve smile. But now all he did was telling Natasha to wait while he took the stairs five at the time almost jumping between the floors, running straight from the building towards the slumped man in the street.  
“Tony,” he called out both to the phone and to the man and watched as the head of a figure moved in reaction. A cell phone than slipped out of man´s hand and quiet “Steve” returned with an attempt to stand up.

Steve was there just in time to catch Tony when his legs failed to hold him and he maneuvered the smaller man so that most of his weight was now on Steve.  
“Can you walk? I can carry you upstairs,” he offered, when he saw how much troubles it gave him just to hold his eyes open. At least he thought so. He couldn´t see Tony´s face through the hoodie and the dark of the night around them.  
“Can… walk,” he tightened his grip on Steve´s shirt with his other hand and just like that they slowly started the way back in the flat. The stairs Steve had taken before were out of the question now. Thank God the building had an elevator.

“Where´s your suit, Tony?” Steve asked when he finally managed to settle Tony on the bed they both had shared so many times before. He was sure that Iron man would want to have it safe, not lying somewhere around.  
“Self… destructed,” he said and Steve nodded. His heart finally calmed down from the insane rhythm it took while searching for the man. No suit meant no cover before Steve´s eyes. Now he fully realized that once again only thing which stood between him and Tony´s face was darkness in the room and his choice not to switch on any light.  
“Steve…” Tony called out again and he could see the lines of the man´s hand trying to find him. He caught the cold fingers and stilled when he felt something warm and sticky covering them.  
“Tony are you bleeding?” he felt sick only pronouncing the words. When no immediate reply came his way, he stood up, stopped in the next second by the same hand squeezing.  
“No… light…”  
“Tony,” he couldn´t fight the harsh tone in his own voice. If he was in a danger, there was no time for this.  
“Not… bad,” Tony managed to say without hissing for a change, “just scratch… knife… right side… I´ll be… fine.”

Steve squeezed his hand back, caressing the skin up to the wrist and back.  
“I need to see it, bandage it, you won´t talk me out of this.” Steve sighed, looking around in the darkness. He knew exactly where was what. “I will bring the lamp, I will settle it behind you so it will send the light towards me, I won´t be able to see your face. So get that hoodie of.” This time Tony let him get up and bring what he´d said.

He quickly sent the message to Nat not to worry. He got him. It will be fine.  
Steve wasn´t really sure who he was trying to persuade anymore.

When he sat down next to Tony´s body again and switched the light on, he nearly gasped at the amount of blood around the sheets and Tony´s T-shirt. The engineer´s breathing was a bit better now, or at least he didn´t sound like he was about to suffocate anymore.  
“Looks worse… than it is.”  
Steve just shook his head, putting his fingers around the hem of the T-shirt. A too familiar scene than flashed in front of his eyes and just as the last time he received the same reaction.  
“No,” a loud, panicked refusal went on and on until Steve let go.  
“Tony, I have to take it off. I can use scissors, but either way…”

He knew that it meant very much to him. They had never ever made love with Tony completely naked. Without his T-shirt. Sometimes when they pressed tightly at each other, he could feel something there, in the middle of his chest, but he never dared to touch.

Steve´s heart shattered a bit when the man let out another painful sound mixed with helplessness and resignation. He didn´t ask again and Tony didn´t stop him this time. He cut the T-shirt away from the wound, at the same time revealing the Iron man´s core implemented into Tony´s chest right in the middle, with many, many scars running every possible way. Steve contained himself before he could gasp aloud. Another source of soft blue light filled the room when it was no more covered by a thick fabric.

Steve´s eyes followed the path to Tony´s long beautiful neck which was the last thing he could see before his eyes would fill with tears from the bright light of the lamp. His face had to be turned away from Steve.  
Without having anything clever to say, Steve unpacked the first aid and started to work quietly on Tony´s side, fishing for any reaction that he was causing him more pain than he was already in.

“You don´t have to explain anything,” he stated after all was done and Steve threw a light blanket over Tony´s torso, hoping it would make him feel more relaxed when the light would be covered again. “Will you be okay? With the gas and everything? Can I do something more?”

“No,” was a simple and cold answer from the man, but still his hand stayed in Steve´s, holding more tightly than before. “Just stay. ´m tired.”  
“Sure,” Steve let the room sink into the comfortable darkness, something both of them knew and when Tony tugged onto him, he laid down as well, being careful around the side he´s just treated.  
“Sorry to come here,” Tony whispered and his breath tickled Steve´s skin, a second later he felt the man press his head between Steve´s chin and his shoulder. “I didn´t… nowhere else to go. I panicked.”

Steve let the smile spread on his lips. “That makes two of us.”  
A choked laugh escaped Tony´s lips. “You… did well.”

Steve pressed his lips on Tony´s forehead in a small kiss, prolonging it a little while enjoying the feeling of the man´s steady breathing. His chest falling down and up in a way it gave away he was on the verge of falling asleep.  
So Steve let him. He knew he won´t follow into the peaceful slumber anytime soon. He had too much energy flowing in his veins from everything that happened.

Only after an hour or so, he calmed himself enough to get out of the bed and find something to drink and eat in the kitchen. He returned on his toes, which had as much of an effect as an elephant trying to sneak around.  
“I appreciate you´re trying to be quiet, but it´s not working, gorgeous.” Tony´s amused voice hit his ears and he smiled, bringing the water closer to his patient. After he had some liquids inside, Steve put the glass away on the nightstand, laying down again and playing with Tony´s hair.  
“I know you have questions,” he started carefully, but Steve shook his head. Then recalling that Tony could probably not see that.  
“Just as I said, you don´t need to explain.”

The man moved next to him. Steve realized he probably wanted to sit up, so he helped. The blanket slid away from his chest and the blue light emerged again, only now it was suppressed by the hand resting over the metal surface.  
“It powers the suit, but you had to figure this already,” Tony ignored Steve´s offer. “I didn´t want you to see because… well, first of all it looks awful.”  
Steve wanted to fight this, but Tony hushed him.  
“No, I know it does, at least to me. And it´s personal. Very personal.” He took a ragged breath and Steve summoned all the control he could not to look up at the slightly lit face. He could. And Tony wouldn´t probably stop him.

“Steve, I have a fucking heart condition and I didn´t want you to know because I didn´t want you to see me as an asset. A cripple behind the iron.”  
Those words hurt. Just thinking about what the man just said looked like a joke to him.  
“You know I would never. Neither would the team.” Steve couldn´t believe Tony really thought this. “I care about you. Very much. For all I know I´m desperately falling in love with you.” He abruptly stopped, cursing in his head. Hearing his own deep breaths in stunned silence he didn´t expect a soft laughter in return.  
“You don´t even know how I look. What if I´m some old man with cheerful voice?”

Steve remembered what little he saw while trying to tend to Tony´s wound. He connected the images with what his hands and lips remembered while covering those parts of iron man´s body.  
“I´ve slept with you Tony, I know you are not an old man.”  
“What if I have ugly scarred face?” he tried again and Steve laughed for real.  
He leaned in for a kiss and when he received one, he moved on Tony´s cheek mapping his way through the strong jaw.  
“I kissed that face so many times that I would know.”  
“You kiss the left side only. Always.” Tony tried to joke his way around, suddenly shifting a little. All the playfulness vanishing.  
“What is it?” Steve asked. He was still very close. He could almost sense Tony´s eyes meeting his.  
“You already know how I look, don´t you?”

Steve held his breath for few seconds. “What do you mean?”

Tony found his hand, taking his fingers and placing them at his lips when he spoke again. “You touched me so many times, you have to know what I look like.”  
Steve sighed. “Only if I would try to imagine it very hard.”  
“Have you tried?” the question was innocent. Tony didn´t seem to be really worried, but he was also drugged.  
“No.” And it was the truth. Steve tried his damn best not to. “Not when I know it´s important to you.”

He heard Tony sigh. He felt it on his fingers.  
“You are really the sweetest man in this horrible world,” Tony spoke up after a while, leaning somewhere beyond Steve´s reach. The lamp flickered into life and Steve closed his eyes with a force, because of the brightness and because of what it meant.  
“Sorry, I didn´t mean to aim it into your eyes.” The other man chuckled. Steve was confused.  
“Look at me.”  
“What?” Steve asked, disbelief clear in his voice. They tried so hard to keep Tony´s identity hidden.  
“You already know how I look so this is really ridiculous. Just open your eyes.”  
“No, I can´t,” Steve insisted, “I won´t ever imagine your face, I swear, please. I don´t want you to leave.”

Tony took a breath like he was about to say something, but he stopped the flow for now.  
“I won´t leave, Steve. I´m finally starting to figure out my life. It won´t take very long.”  
A hope seized Steve´s heart.  
“Tell me what my hair looks like?” Tony asked suddenly and Steve went still.  
He imagined his hands diving into man´s curls.  
“They are bit longer than the last time we met, just enough to pull my fingers through and bury my hands in them. I think they are dark.”  
Tony chuckled again, pleased.  
“What about my eyes?”  
“You have nice long lashes and thick brows. Sometimes when you sleep next to me and you wake up with your face pressed on my chest I can feel them.”  
“What color?”  
Steve shrugged. “I always imagined chocolate brown, but I´m not sure.”  
“What about my face and my lips?”  
Steve smiled. “You have nice cheekbones, not very prominent, and strong jaw, and mustache, it always tickles me.”  
Tony´s laughter was contagious.  
“And you have full lips, sweet and soft and soooo skillful,” he added, now sending Tony into series of amused chuckled noises.

“Yes, so you may be surprised that all of those descriptions are actually accurate. You know my face better than I do, Steve. So let’s stop playing this game. Open your eyes for me.”

Steve took a deep breath in, filling his lungs with much needed air. And then he looked.

“Oh, fuck, say something. It can´t be that bad,” Tony pretended to be taken aback by Steve´s gaping and a slightly opened mouth, but from entirely wrong reason.  
Steve just tried to find the right words, any words.

He slowly extended his hand until it touched the side of Tony´s face and the man leaned in affectionally. His smile was brighter than stars outside and his eyes glistened.  
“You are…” and he knew that wasn´t the perfect expression, but it was close, “breathtakingly beautiful.”  
He saw Tony blush and Steve wanted to imprint that picture in his memory.  
“Do you know me?” Tony asked after a while. Steve shook his head in denial.  
“Should I?”

Tony seemed to be happy with his answer. He said: “No, I just wanted to make sure.” And then he was slowly reaching for Steve and pulling him closer to him, letting him enjoy what he was seeing. He took a very long time to just stare in his eyes. The phone went off and crashed the moment, but Tony just indicated for Steve to answer it.  
“They have to be freaking out,” he said and relaxed in the warm bed, spreading his muscular arms back behind his head. Steve stilled for a second before he remembered what he was supposed to do.

“Steve Rogers,” he answered blindly not letting his eyes fall away from Tony´s body provoking him.  
“Rogers,” a distant firm voice captured his full attention.  
“Director Fury,” he said aloud. Tony sat straight in the bed.  
“Is he with you?”  
Steve froze and looked at Tony for help. He didn´t give him an answer.  
“Who?” he decided to play dumb, finding out what director knew and what he could hide.  
“Don´t do this, Rogers. I know he was out tonight. His suit blew up a building. There was a camera there, showing him staggering away. Did he go to you?”

Tony didn´t seem to be concerned by the mentions of the camera, but then Steve remembered his face was covered when he´d found him.  
“Yes, but he is gone now,” he lied through his teeth, failing at it miserably.  
“Put him on the phone.”  
“He´s not here, director.” Steve didn´t hesitate.  
There was an irritated sigh on the other side. “Tell him we took a sample of the gas, it´s not poisonous, but it will make him sick in a few hours. Someone should be with him. He can be delirious, see things, he can be aggressive. Be careful.”

Steve didn´t expect that and probably neither did Tony. He looked like he was ready to jump out of the bed and disappear, but before that, he moved his fingers in the gesture for Steve to give him the phone.  
“Hey, my favorite one-eyed director, how is the life going?”  
There was certain amount of angry shouting during which Tony had to put the cell phone away from his ear and Steve chuckled.  
“You know I love you too, honeybear, just watch your heartrate. No. And no. I don´t think that´s the best idea. I heard you talking about being an aggressive prick or just aggressive, so I´m going home. JARVIS can handle me.”

Steve frowned and then raised his eyebrows when he was given the phone back.  
“Hello?”  
“Rogers,” Fury started more calmly, “you will not let him walk away from wherever you are. In less than half an hour he will become disoriented and he can repeatedly lose consciousness. Tell him to be reasonable. He can´t go alone or he never makes it to his house.”

Steve looked at Tony alarmed.  
“Great. Now you scared him,” he called out near the phone, running with his hands into the already messed hair. Steve put his palm on Tony´s tight preventing him to get up.  
“I understand, director. When will this condition pass?”

As he hanged up, Tony looked up at him. “A night,” Steve said, “you need to stay the night.”  
“No,” Tony shook his head. “I´m feeling alright, Steve, you´ve done enough. I will call you tomorrow.”  
However he wasn´t the only stubborn person in the room.  
“I have an order not to let you leave. I´m sorry,” he apologized, the corners of his mouth turning up in the smile. “And I can fight you easily right now with that wound.”

After a moment of silence and intense starring match Tony folded his hands on his chest and threw himself back in the bed, wincing a bit.  
“Fine. You won. I can´t really imagine anything better than spending my night throwing up in front of you.”  
Steve shut him up with a quick kiss.  
“I don´t mind,” he whispered, waiting for Tony to fully comprehend. Eventually he warmed up to Steve´s reassuring and the two men curled together on the bed.  
“I just want you to be okay.”

Tony looked him in the eyes and gave him an amazing smile. “I appreciate that.”  
“I think I´m falling in love with you,” Steve blurted out again, holding his breath.  
Nothing has changed on the man´s face, only more emotions settled in his stare. “I´m quite irresistible,” he joked, but then he became serious again. “Me too, Steve. Actually, I’ve been in love with you for some time. That´s why I´m trying to get my life together, to have a future, where you wouldn´t have to fight me.”

Steve grinned, completely filled with happiness.  
“Good. Perfect.”  
Tony stroke his cheek gently. “Yes. Perfect.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who is excited for the last chapter? If you liked this so far, let me know. Your comments and kuddos make me write faster! :P Beta-readed by [RosieMS](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieMS/works)  
> I hope you liked the video and big sorry if you have already seen it! I´m the worst spammer... :D Join me on my [channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAvYEGsPHeUkLentO-jsufQ?sub_confirmation=1).


	5. Anthony Stark, your new team-member

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FINALE is here! 
> 
> PS: I apologize for mistakes, the chapter is not BETA-readed.

                                                        

 

“So… You saw his face.”

Steve´s head tossed up in the way of the unhappy voice. He met Bruce´ eyes feeling like his friend has just convicted him of some crime and slowly nodded.

Someone, probably Natasha sucked the air through her lips, it almost sounded like a wince, but Steve didn´t look away. He just shifted uncomfortably on the couch where he and his team were seated.  
“I´ve known it by the touch anyway,” he repeated Tony´s words from yesterday, trying not to blush.  
“Steve…” Natasha started carefully with a slight disappointment in her voice, “that was stupid.”

He knew it was. God, Tony probably knew it too. But they needed to do it. While remembering the face of the man he loved – he couldn´t say he would take it back for any reason.

“At least is he hot?” Clint asked casually, playing with one of his arrows in his lap and eying Steve with something humorous written over his face.  
Natasha hushed him immediately with a frown, but it was too late for Steve´s grin already formed on his lips. He had to look like a teenager drooling over his crush while recalling the strong body under his hands, the perfect bright eyes and a smile he would kill for… he stopped the track of his thoughts before they could end up somewhere more south.  
“Yes, he is.” He gave everyone a steady look. A look which said: yes, I know I screwed up, but I can´t regret it.

“So how is he?” Bruce addressed the issue Steve and the team was anxious about.  
“I hope he´s alright now. He was when he was leaving and the effects of the gas should be gone by now.” He hoped so.  
“It was a terrible night,” he admitted, pressing the heels of his palms into his tired eyes. He started remembering and chills creeped back on his back.

OOO

Steve woke up startled. He had a distant feeling that some unpleasant dream might have been a reason. However as soon as he blinked into the weakly lit room, it was gone, erased from his memory. Certainly he won´t miss it.

“Tony?” he called out with a sleepy voice, when he realized the place beside him was empty. His eyes darted towards the watch on the nightstand. It showed 5:06 a.m. - only twenty minutes passed since Steve allowed himself to close his eyes for a brief moment, only because of Tony´s very persuasive way of telling him to do that or he is leaving.

_He really enjoyed looking at the man now that he could. Softly caressing his face as Tony´s eyes were locked on his face and a smile was present on his lips non-stop. He wanted to steal as many of these moments as he could._

_They spent three hours lazily spread on each other, talking and laughing on some old mission stories and so far nothing happened. Tony felt tired, but refused to sleep. No other symptoms occurred and Steve started to doubt the shield´s analysis. He was thankful Tony was feeling alright, yes, but he still didn´t want to fall asleep because of the fear it might change in the meantime._

 “Tony?” he tried again, this time louder, forcefully drawing his thoughts back to the present. He looked around the room pulling the blanket away and crawling out of the warm bed. The bathroom door was closed and looked like there was no one inside, so Steve walked past it into the kitchen.

A familiar blue light covered the floor behind the counter and Steve tensed before he forced his next step behind it.

“Tony,” he said breathlessly, “hey.”  
The engineer was sitting, slumped against the kitchen cabinets on the cold floor, clutching something in his hand with a wild expression, breathing loudly through his nose like there was something sitting on his bare chest, restricting him from taking a proper breath. In the moment Steve felt similar.  
“Tony,” Steve tried again and for a second he thought that if the man is really delirious he probably won´t respond to the fake name at all. But then his head snapped Steve´s way and a ragged breath escaped his mouth.

“Steve,” Tony acknowledged his presence finally, his form shaking and eyes moving from Steve´s face to something invisible behind his back.  
“Tony, what are you seeing there?” Steve asked, turning back and forth, making sure there really is nothing creeping on them.  
“Come here,” Tony said almost whispering and Steve was glad that at least the man recognized him and wanted him close. He moved wordlessly at Tony´s side, he gazed at his hands carefully to see what he was holding.

A knife, probably from the kitchen.

Steve swallowed down the worry and tried to think clearly. He carefully outstretched his hand where Tony could see it.  
“Give me the knife, Tony, it´s okay.” He watched as the man´s beautiful eyes returned to something what only he could see. Steve tried again. “I will protect you. Please. Give it to me.”

Tony was hesitating for a long time, but then he offered the weapon and Steve cheered inside. Something in Tony trusted him deeply even when the man himself wasn´t in the right state of mind.

Steve encouraged Tony to move even closer and he let one of his hands encircle Iron man´s shoulders to keep him pressed against his chest. Their eyes stayed on the wall in front of them with Tony murmuring something from time to time. It was hard to understand the cryptic words or whether they were meant for Steve or… the other thing/person he was seeing.

The whole scene was very disturbing, but Steve didn´t dare to move an inch, at least not until Tony came back to him almost fifteen minutes later and asked him with wide, confused eyes why they were on the floor. After that question, Steve only smiled and said he had a hallucination of a sort and that it was alright. They went back to bed. Only few minutes later a true hell began.

Tony got several more hallucinations and each time his reaction was more violent than before. He screamed and trashed and fought Steve with everything he had. Despite the fact that it was breaking Steve´s heart, he was holding him down against his will until it stopped completely and his eyes cleared once again.

By that time Steve was full of scratches and few good hits landed on various parts of his body, but what was more important, Tony was bleeding again. It was priority to fix that problem first and while doing so, Steve politely declined an apology coming from the man.

“God, I hope it´s over. I feel like I was run by the train,” he said when Steve finally lied down next to him and the two of them curled together.  
“Well, you kinda was,” Steve said apologetically, taking one of Tony´s wrists in his hand inspecting the bruises forming there. “I should have been more gentle.”  
To that Tony laughed warmly. “You know I like it hard, Steve.”

He wanted to ask many things. Like what had Tony seen? Who had he fought? What the hell had happened to him? But all Steve could do at the end was to wrap his fingers over Tony´s where they were resting against his metal heart and count the steady beats.

OOO

Steve shook his head hardly believing what he´d said next.  
“I asked how it happened.” Like and idiot I was. He´d sensed Tony tensing in his arms and he´d immediately wanted to take it back.  
“What did he say?” Clint asked this time very seriously.

Steve didn´t want to think about it, not again, not when all he could see was Tony screaming and trashing on the filthy operating table just like he´d been on Steve´s bed.  
“He shared the story,” Steve offered the information, but didn´t go into any details without Tony´s permission, “he just wanted you to know about his condition in the case of an emergency.”

Steve didn´t mention how much time it took him to persuade Tony that they can and will keep it a secret and what was more important they won´t think any lees of him because of it. How could they? The only thing he proved was that he was a fighter, a survivor.

“Okay,” Clint said first, then Natasha nodded and Bruce followed.  
“What about Fury?”  
Steve smiled for the first time since they started the conversation.  
“He said that Fury knows who he is, but he doesn´t have the proof or maybe he just pretends by now. It doesn´t really matter.”  
“What do you mean?” Natasha asked with a deep wrinkle on her forehead.  
“I mean that Iron man decided to stop working solo. He wants to join us after he´ll set few things for himself. We have to give him time, but eventually… he will be with us.”

Steve´s smile started to widen as he was speaking and at the end his face almost hurt. The rest of his team was clearly on the same page with him. Nat even hugged him, whispering softly in his ear.  
“I´m happy for you.”  
“I´m happy for us,” Clint deadpanned and all of them turned to face him, Steve with raised eyebrows. “What? He catches us midair every time we jump of somewhere.”  
They laughed. And for a moment everything was alright. Steve could almost forget that he´d had to say his goodbye to Tony for some time – weeks perhaps.

All in all time is relative. When you have a goal, something sweet waiting for you at the end, it passes quite quickly and Steve had a lot he was looking forward to. When the day finally came and Tony called explaining that everything was done, it also meant that Iron man was ready to finally start working out the things with SHIELD and to meet Steve. Captain wore a big smile whole day, informing the team while being superaware that very soon he will see Tony again in a different situation than shooting at some villains in the suit. Preferably without the suit and without any clothes as well.

They set their date.

And of course Fury sent them invitation to some gala at the same day. Because clearly nothing in Steve´s life could for once go as he planned. He had to call Tony and tell him how sorry he was that they wouldn´t be able to meet, no until later in the night, but surprisingly the man took it well, even joked that few more hours couldn´t hurt so much. Only that they really did.

The separation caused Steve almost a physical pain by this point. He needed to see him. Fast.

Natasha had this amused glance when he told her about his previous plans as they were walking into the big fancy room where people immediately started to greet them, but she fell in her role just as he did and it was okay – they had to put up with the charade only for few hours.

Few hours which felt like 10 years.

His team always knew how to avoid the contact with other people, but Steve was almost constantly caught in that or other circle of over-enthusiastic rich people trying to wrestle something they could gossip about out of him. It was uncomfortable and soon Steve found himself shutting the voices completely, daydreaming about what will follow later in the night. He had to stop in fear he would make himself blush or worse.

“Captain Rogers,” a familiar voice called his name and although Steve had no idea why Fury was here too, he gladly turned to meet him. He caught a glance of his team moving and taking a stand at his sides and then he also realized that someone else was hiding behind the director. Or no… not hiding merely taking a cover.

Maybe so Steve wouldn´t have a heart attack right at the spot when he would see the guest´s face transforming into the face of the man he loved as he stepped from behind Fury and offered Steve a small innocent smile.

“Captain, let me introduce to you Anthony Stark, the CEO of Stark Industries and currently also SHIELD´s new weapon´s specialist for your team,” Fury stated flatly, but with something funny in his voice. There was a hint of a joke between the lines, but Steve didn´t really pay attention to that. Not when he finally heard the name he yearned to know for such a long time and his eyes fell on Tony´s lips pronouncing Steve´s name in response. Steve had literally no idea how Tony managed it to sound so dirty.

Tony offered his hand without blinking and he looked nervous for few seconds probably because he couldn´t be sure of the reason for Steve´s stunned reaction.  
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Stark,” he finally managed to spill, taking his hand after Natasha had kicked Steve´s foot.  
“Oh, please, Tony is fine.” Steve almost stopped breathing seeing that stunning smile aimed at him, hearing again the name he was already used to coming from those sinful lips like a proof – I gave you all I could, even my real name.  
“Nice to meet you, Tony,” Steve heard Natasha introducing herself, then Clint, who actually whistled with appreciation mentioning some of Tony´s technology he already came in contact with. The last one to offer his hand was Bruce who started immediately sang his own praises about some scientific projects Steve had no idea about. To all of those Tony was smiling and giving very clever, polite answers, sending sideway glances Steve´s way even when he wasn´t directly talking to him.

And Steve was silent the whole time, surprised, overwhelmed, unable to pretend when all he wanted to do was grab Tony and kiss him senseless.  
“Captain?”  
He returned back to present, shaking his head. “Steve,” he said. It was impossible not to return the smile now.  
“May I speak with you in private?”

Steve had to recall one more time that no one had any idea who Tony was and that for some reason they were playing this game, so Steve went with it.  
“Of course.”  
He had a distant feeling that Fury made a noise which Steve didn´t know how to interpret.

He followed Tony out of the room. He was moving like in the dream, eyeing Tony´s back in the tight tuxedo jacket, thinking that he would probably lose his way if he allowed himself to blink.

He wasn´t sure where he expected them to end, but men´s restroom wasn´t at the top of Steve´s list. However, he didn´t argue when Tony closed the door behind them and hurried them both against the wall, catching Steve´s head between his hands before he smashed their lips together in one passionate and messy kiss – desperate, all teeth and tongue. And Steve growled, lifting Tony up like he didn´t weight nothing at all and placing him on the counter, sliding his hands under his shirt, feeling the hard surface of the reactor and laughing against the man´s mouth. Because this was real. His hot skin under Steve´s fingers. His moans when Steve pressed his lips and tongue on Tony´s throat.

Four weeks. It´s been four weeks. Too long. There was no possible way to regain control.

“Hey, ughm, sorry, I… will be on my way out…” At first Steve didn´t recognize the voice. He only knew that someone had to open the door they hadn´t locked and maybe that person didn´t even recognize them, but then a sudden sharp inhale interrupted all of Steve´s thoughts and he let go of Tony´s lips to glance at the intruder.

Damn.  
Clint.  
Very pissed Clint.

“What the hell are you doing, Steve?” The accusation was cold like a slap across the cheek. Clint was looking at both of them, taking in what he was seeing and what it meant and Steve had to remind himself that the archer had no idea who Tony was.  
“Okay, cap, the guy is kinda hot, but you have a fucking boyfriend, so please just go with me right now or you will regret this in the morning.”

There on Clint´s face were a lot of emotions Steve never wanted to see again in connection with his person. And for a second he didn´t even know where to start, how to explain. And then Tony laughed loud and cheerful. Clint reacted with a scowl.

“Birdbrain, I really appreciate your concern, but Steve can´t cheat on me…” he lifted one of his hands and from his watch an iron man gauntlet formed around his hand, “… with me.” He waved at Clint and the archer´s eyes widened, just as his smile appeared and did the same.  
“Oh, fuck me.”  
Tony grinned at him. “No, thank you, already taken.”

“Steve,” Clint addressed the supersoldier, “you won a fucking lottery, man.” His eyes snapped back at Tony. After a moment of thinking, he blurted out: “I want arrows. Explosive arrows. A lot of explosive arrows.”  
Tony nodded half-seriously. “You got it.”

Clint looked happy beyond belief. He started to turn back towards the door.  
“You might want to lock the door this time or maybe move it somewhere else?”

They were back on each other sooner than Clint had the time to close after him and they both heard his laugh as he was leaving.  
“He is right, we should go home,” Steve forced himself to pull away, still cradling Tony in his arms like a treasure.  
“Yes,” Tony agreed immediately, “I hate when someone interrupts like this.”

Steve chuckled. He let his hand caress Tony´s cheek and he almost crumbled to pieces when Tony looked at him back like he was his entire world.  
“So no more a villain? Ready to become a hero?” And that was a stupid question, because in Steve´s guidebook Tony was already a hero.  
Tony bit his lower lip.

“What about something in between for a start?”  
Steve snickered.  
“Yes, that could work…” he kissed those lips with closed eyes and crazy-beating heart – the promise of their future and a brand new world waiting for them, “for a start.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first story I´ve managed to finish! :P Thank you all for being here, supporting me, giving me the energy to continue and motivation to get better. I hope you are satisfied with the ending. I will be very, very happy for any response from you. :) Would you like another story with secret identities? Let me know!
> 
> Meanwhile if you feel up to it check my other stories:  
> StevexTony - [A thousand and one NIGHTS with Tony Stark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17038724)  
> TonyxLoki - [About gods and engineers](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13458549/chapters/30851856)  
> TonyxLoki - [Not Open For Suicidal Iron Man](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17895428/chapters/42244646)  
> TonyxStephen - [A little bit of Strange´s strength](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17610716/chapters/41516027)
> 
> If you liked the newest video, don´t forget to also visit my [channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAvYEGsPHeUkLentO-jsufQ?sub_confirmation=1) and subscribe for more!


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